Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080

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Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Experimental and numerical investigations into the effect of an

interference fit on the fatigue life of double shear lap joints
T.N. Chakherlou a,*, M. Mirzajanzadeh a, J. Vogwell b
a
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Iran
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this research the effect of bolt interference fit on the fatigue life of lap joints in double
Received 14 January 2009 shear was investigated by conducting experimental fatigue tests and also analytically by FE
Accepted 21 January 2009 simulation. In the experimental part, fatigue tests were carried out on specimens made
Available online 31 January 2009
from aluminium alloy 2024-T3 plates joined together as double lap joints and secured
using bolts having fits ranging from zero clearance to different levels of interference. The
Keywords: results demonstrate how the failure is affected using different levels of interference fit.
Interference fit
In the numerical study, 3-D FE models were used to simulate the different pin in hole fits
Fatigue life
Finite elements
considered and the results have been used to help explain the trends which were observed
Double shear lap joints in the experimentally obtained S–N curve behaviour.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Mechanical joints which connect overlapping plates are widely used in engineering structures – especially on aircraft –
and these are frequently at critical locations. Indeed many thousands of such joints are needed whether they use bolts, rivets
or securing pins. The location of each fastener hole is inherently a localized stress concentration and a potential source for
fatigue crack initiation and propagation under cyclic loading. The design of the joint is therefore of great importance, because
inadequate design may lead to defective structures and an early failure. Therefore, to help avoid fatigue failure in mechanical
joints, various techniques exist such as cold expansion of the hole, bolt tightening to achieve friction grip clamping and also
the use of interference fits are employed [1–12]. Although this research is concerned with the effect of interference fitting on
improving fatigue life of double shear lap joints it is relevant to firstly consider how the alternative methods achieve resis-
tance to fatigue and also review how they have been studied.
Cold expansion is one of the most important techniques available for improving the fatigue life of a fastener hole and the
method has received much attention in recent years [1–5]. In the cold expansion process a hole is plastically expanded using
a mandrel which is push or pulled through the hole using a sleeve or highly lubricated hole. In this process significant com-
pressive residual stresses are created tangentially around the hole edge. This compressive residual stress reduces any applied
tensile stresses which might occur in service and thus help avoid, or considerably delay, fatigue crack initiation and growth
[3]. In studying the residual stresses occurring around a cold expanded hole, mathematical, experimental and numerical
computational approaches have all been extensively used. Practical methods of measuring residual stress were used in many
research studies [13–22] and in most of these the techniques used involved measuring the residual stress distribution in the
region of the hole rather than exactly at the hole edge. Experimental methods can be very expensive to apply and typically
measure an average residual stress through the plate thickness rather than stress distributions and so do not identify peak

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 411 3392492.

E-mail address: tnavid@tabrizu.ac.ir (T.N. Chakherlou).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2009.01.009
 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080 2067

magnitudes at salient locations. A more popular and economical method of determining residual stresses is to use the finite
element method [1–7]. This is a powerful method as it can deal with material, geometrical and boundary non-linearities and
so it is not restricted to idealized material and small deformations that mathematical methods use. FE is not expensive to
apply like the experimental techniques and has the benefit of showing residual stresses at the hole edge.
Bolt clamping is also a way of improving the fatigue life of fastener holes in joints [7]. The effect of torque tightening a bolt
puts the clamped plates into axial compression and because of the Poisson’s Ratio effect, beneficial compressive tangential
stress is created around the hole edge thus helping to avoid or delay any fatigue crack initiation or growth in the joint. The
friction grip achieved between bolt head or nut washer and the plate surfaces also helps protect the joint by helping support
any external load applied to the joint thus further isolating the critical hole edge from damaging loads.
For many years interference fitted connections have been widely used for transmitting motion via two cylindrical parts.
Such applications are crank shaft-belt, shaft-bearing and shaft-bearing assemblies [23]. The interference fit joining is a
mechanical retention mechanism which operates by interference of materials. Compared to mechanical fastening and adhe-
sive bonding which are generally used in joining the composite materials [24], the interference fit is more efficient in the
viewpoint of weight saving since it requires no extra fasteners or additives. Also the interference fit provides a stiff load path
due to the Coulomb friction, which makes itself feasible to be combined with other joining techniques [25]. In addition to
above mentioned applications, interference fit is one of the important techniques has been utilised for improving fatigue per-
formance of bolted joints [10–12].
The interference process consists of inserting fasteners into a hole with a negative clearance (diameter of the fastener is
larger than of the hole). The interference fit employs an oversized fastener, which causes the hole to stretch. Due to inter-
ference fit, the material is pushed back all around the hole circumference and it is believed that material still behaves elas-
tically (for small interference size). The interference fit has been utilised for improving fatigue performance of bolted joints
as in this technique, a residual tensile tangential stress is induced at the edge of the hole and this reduces the magnitude of
local cyclic stress due to remote cyclic loading. Although this tensile stress causes a mean stress rise, but it considerably re-
duces the cyclic (alternating) stress amplitude. The reduction in the stress amplitude is beneficial in delaying the onset of
fatigue crack initiation and propagation, hence increasing fatigue life. However, the basis for the use of interference fit fas-
tener relies upon experimental results. The understanding for fatigue life improvement is limited so far and the explanation
remains largely qualitative [9,26–28]. Nevertheless in [8] the interference fit effect on fatigue life improvement of a single
plate was studied both experimentally and numerically using 2-D finite element plane stress models.
In this paper the effect which the level of interference fit has on improving fatigue life of fastener hole in double shear lap
joints was studied experimentally by conducting fatigue tests and numerically using 3-D FEM models for determining stress
and strain distributions around a cylindrical hole. To study the effect of the severity of the interference fit level on fatigue life,
the experimental fatigue tests and FE simulations were carried out for aluminum alloy 2024-T3 on ‘no interference fitted’
specimen and specimens which interference fitted with different levels. Also, a number of the fatigue–fractured sections
of the specimens are studied to help identify the location of crack initiation and also to examine the propagation regions.

2. Experimental tests and results

2.1. Fatigue specimens and performing interference fit

In order to investigate the effect of interference fit in a double shear lap joint a special fixture was designed to perform
fatigue tests. This fixture includes a long holed piece and two identical small pieces made from Al-alloy 7075-T6 (see Fig. 1a).
There are two holes of 6 and 8 mm in diameters in the small pieces, the big holes were used to fasten these pieces to the long
holed piece using an M8 bolt (of class 8.8). The 6 mm diameter hole was design to pass through the pin which is force fitted
to fatigue specimens (see Fig. 1b). Fatigue specimens were made from 3.2 mm-thick aerospace grade Al-alloy 2024-T3 with
dimensions shown in Fig. 2. These specimens were cut from a 1.22 m  1.22 m plate so that their longitudinal axes were
aligned with the plate rolling direction. The pins that force fitted to fatigue specimens were made from half threaded M6

Fatigue test fixture made

Interference fitted hole Fatigue test specimen made
from Al alloy 7075-T6
from Al alloy 2024-T3

a b
Fig. 1. Fatigue test fixture (a) and fatigue test specimen (b).
2068 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080

Fig. 2. Fatigue test specimen dimensions and schematic of the double shear lap joint after assemble of the parts.

class 12.9 bolt in which the thread part was removed and made tapered by machine to have collinear centerlines of the pin
and hole. The class 12.9 bolt was chosen as it did not break during trial fatigue tests (whereas this happened for other clas-
ses). The diameter of the pins (the unthread part of the bolt) was D = 5.9 mm. In order to have various interference fit only
the hole diameter of fatigue specimens was made differently. The fatigue specimen hole diameters (after drilling and ream-
ing) were d = 5.92 mm, 5.81 mm, 5.76 mm, 5.63 mm, so the interference of I% = 0%, 1.5%, 2.4% and 4.7% were created, where
interference size was defined as
Dd
I% ¼  100 ð1Þ
d
In which d is the hole diameter and D is the bolt (pin) diameter. It is worth mentioning that fatigue specimen hole inaccuracy
was within 0.005 mm from d. To force fit the pins into the fatigue specimens’ hole, a 60 kN capacity Roel pull–push test ma-
chine was used. To do so, the contacting surfaces, which include the hole inner surface and the pin outer surfaces, were
smeared with grease to reduce friction force. Then one end of the pin was located inside a specially pre-designed fixture
(not shown) that was fixed to the upper jaw of the test machine. After that a washer with 12 mm inner and 30 mm outer
diameters was put around the hole under the specimens (as a support) on the lower jaw. In the last stage the lower jaw
was moved up to insert the pin into the hole.
To ensure scratch free fatigue specimens, the surfaces of the specimens were polished using violet and ultra violet sand
papers. Also, in order to avoid the possible contact between fatigue specimen and its fixture during fatigue tests, which may
cause unwanted fretting fatigue, very thin rubber pads were placed between them at the fatigue specimen faces around the
interference fitted hole.

Fig. 3. Cyclic load wave shape applied and test specimen on the fatigue test machine.
 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080 2069

2.2. Fatigue test and results

Fatigue tests were carried out using a Zwick Roel Amsler HA250 fatigue test machine with dynamic and static load capac-
ity of 125 kN and 250 kN, respectively. These tests were conducted on interference fitted specimens and without interfer-

Fig. 4. S–N curves obtained from fatigue tests.

Fig. 5. Fractured specimen after fatigue test.

Fig. 6. Fractured sections after fatigue test (the top plane is pin entrance face for interference fitted hole).
2070 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080

ence fit specimens at constant amplitude, sinusoidal cycling loads with a load ratio of zero (R = Pmin/Pmax) and frequency of
15 Hz (see Fig. 3). These tests were carried out at 11 peak load of 10–19 kN (or equal remote stress level of 174–330 MPa).
The fatigue test results are displayed in a semi-log S–N diagram in Fig. 4. As the figure shows, the interference fitted spec-
imens show fatigue life improvement at lower amplitude cyclic load compared to without interference fitted specimens.
However, the interference fitted specimens show virtually any life improvement at the high amplitude cyclic loads.

2.3. Examination of the fractured surfaces

To investigate whether the pin insertion direction in interference fit process has any influence on the fatigue crack initi-
ation location (see Fig. 5), the fractured surfaces were examined. The examinations show that fatigue crack initiates at the

Fig. 7. The part of fixture and fatigue specimen used to FE model (a); half of the FE model and pin size (b).

Fig. 8. Stress–strain diagram for Al-alloys 7075-T6 and 2024-T3.

 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080 2071

pin entrance face at the lower amplitude cyclic loading, but around the middle plane at higher amplitude cyclic loading at
the hole edge (see Fig. 6). The fracture section of ‘0% interference fit’ specimens also show that fatigue crack initiates mostly
around the middle plane at the hole edge.

3. Finite element model

In order to simulate the interference fit to evaluate stress and strain distributions, 3-D FE models were used. The FE mod-
els were created in the general pre-processing program [29].

Fig. 9. The final used FE model.

Fig. 10. Stress (Sx) distribution as contour for 1.5% (a) 2.4% (b) and 4.7% (c) of interference fit.
2072 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080

Fig. 11. Nomination of different planes (faces) and positive h direction at the specimen.

Fig. 12. FEM predicted residual stress and plastic strain distributions in x-direction for the all interference fit levels at the smallest cross section area.
 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080 2073

In the simulations only part of the fixture and central part of the fatigue specimen were used to avoid a big and unnec-
essary FE model as shown in Fig. 7a. Also the size of the FE model was further reduced by choosing only half of it due to
geometry and loading symmetry respect to X–Z plane (see Fig. 7b). The model consists of one set of Solid 185 element
[30] for the plates and another set of this element for the pin. In addition, Contact 174 and Target 170 elements [30] were
used at our surfaces of the pin and inner surface of the plate holes. These contact elements allow pressure to be transferred
between the pin and the plates at the hole surfaces, but without them the pin penetrates to the plates at the hole region
during interference process and subsequent longitudinal loading of the plates.
The Solid 185 is linear isoperimetric cubic element which is defined by eight nodes, one node at each cube vertex. The
nodes have three degrees of freedom: translations in the x, y, and z directions. This element was preferred to quadratic
one because it provides the same accuracy in plasticity (2  2  2 integration points) and also it is well conjugated with con-
tact elements [31].
In the simulation, an elastic–plastic material behaviour with kinematics hardening rule was used to represent the alumi-
num alloy 7075-T6 (E = 71.5 GPa, v = 0.33) and 2024-T3 (E = 71.1 GPa, v = 0.33). The stress–strain behaviour of the materials
were obtained from simple tensile tests in the rolling direction and shown in Fig. 8. For the steel pin a linear elastic stress–
strain relationship was assumed with Young’s modulus of 207 GPa and Poisson’s ratio of 0.29.
A static analysis was used to simulate the interference process and subsequent longitudinal loading of fatigue specimen
(the middle plate see Fig. 7). Therefore to constrain the plates and pin in the model symmetric displacement boundary con-
dition was applied to X–Z plane. The fixture plates were constrained in the X direction in Y–Z plane at the left end and also to
avoid a possible rigid displacement in Z direction the corner nodes were constrained in this direction.
In the FE models to do interference fit, the pin was initially positioned so that it was in contact with the hole edge at the
pin entrance face of the middle plate (fatigue specimen) and then the simulation of interference fit was carried out by incre-
menting the position of the nodes in the pin upper face in the –Z direction. The pin was pushed through the hole so that these
nodes were moved 11 mm. The process of pushing pin was carried in 250 sub steps in FE models. In the simulation the nodes
located at the pin centerline were constrained in the X direction to avoid any numerical oscillation due to the pin possible
movement in this direction. As explained in Section 2.1, during pin force fitting a support ring was placed the underneath of
fatigue specimen around the hole. So to take into account its effect in the FE simulation the nodes between the radii of 6 and
15 mm from the hole center at the bottom face were constrained in the Z direction in the pin insertion stage.
The FE model was initially run using coarse meshes but was then refined several times until the results converged (see
Fig. 9). In order to include the friction effect between the pin and the hole an Elastic Coulomb friction model with friction
coefficient of l = 0.1 was used [32].

4. Finite element results

4.1. Stress and strain results for interference fit

3-D finite element simulations of interference fit using cylindrical pin have shown that the tangential stress is not uni-
form through the plate thickness at the hole edge as shown in Fig. 10.
For more clarity, the variation of tangential stress (Sx) and tangential plastic strain (EPx) for smallest cross section area for
h = 90o at three planes of entrance (z = 3.2 mm), middle (or mid z = 1.6 mm) and bottom plane (face z = 0 mm) of the plate
(see Fig. 11) for different interference fits are shown as graphs in Fig. 12. As the graphs indicate the stress is tensile at
the entrance and bottom faces at the hole edge (see Fig. 12a and e). However the tangential stress is compressive for about
1 mm around the hole then it turns out to be tensile at the mid-plane (Fig. 12c).

Fig. 13. FEM predicted residual stress distribution at the hole edge through the plate thickness for all interference fit levels at h = 90o.
2074 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080

The results of tangential plastic strain were also shown for interference fitted hole in Fig. 12(right), as the graphs indicate
with increasing the interference level, the plastic strain also increases at the hole edge.
To have a better over view on tangential residual stress, which has been left from interference process, its distri-
butions for smallest cross section area (h = 90o) through the plate thickness is indicated as graphs in Fig. 13. As the
graph shows the tangential stress is compressive at the hole edge around middle plane, but it is tensile at small re-
gions around the pin entrance and exit faces. The tangential tensile stress at the pin exit face is larger than at the pin
entrance face.

4.2. Stress results for subsequent longitudinal loading

In order to investigate the distribution of resultant stresses due to interference fit and external load around the hole, a
longitudinal remote tensile stress was subsequently applied to the far end of the middle plate (i.e. away from the hole). This
remote stress was incrementally increased from 0 to its peak level of load (remote stress) and then back to zero (unloading).

Fig. 14. Stress Sx for 15 kN loading (left) and 10 kN loading (right) for the all interference fit levels.
 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080 2075

This is the simulation of stress variations (around the hole) in interference fitted fatigue specimens during experimental fa-
tigue tests. The longitudinal resultant stress distributions due to the combined effect of interference fit and longitudinal re-
mote load at three planes (z = 0, z = 1.6, z = 3.2 mm) for two levels of the remote load were shown in Fig. 14 for the three
levels of the interference fit and 0% interference fit at the smallest cross section area (h = 90o). As the graphs show for the
bigger longitudinal load the resultant stress is almost the same for all interference fit and zero interference. However, for
the smaller longitudinal load the resultant stress around the hole is generally less than 0% interference fitted hole but it
is bigger at region far away the hole. The effect of interference is quite appreciable at lower remote load and bigger inter-
ference sizes especially for the middle plane around the hole. The interference effect is not pronounced at the hole edge
in the entrance and bottom face, though it is quite sensible away from the hole.

Fig. 15. Definition of cyclic stress parameters on the interference fitted specimen during cyclic loading typically for 2.4% interference fit at the exit face for
10 kN peak load.

Fig. 16. The combined longitudinal resultant stress distributions due to interference fit and subsequent cyclic remote loading of 10 kN peak load (or
176 MPa remote stress) at h = 90o for 1.5% interference fit.
2076 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080

4.3. Stress results for subsequent cyclic longitudinal loading

To gain an overview of the distribution of resultant stress cyclic parameters, such as stress range, stress amplitude and
mean stress (see Fig. 15) in the presence of the pin, the FEM models were subjected to cyclic longitudinal loads (zero to ten-
sion and back to zero) for zero and other interference fit sizes.
The longitudinal resultant stress distributions due to the combined effect of interference fit and longitudinal remote load
were shown in Figs. 16–18 for the three levels of the interference fit and without interference fit at the smallest cross section
area (h = 90o) for a low level load of 10 kN.
Also the longitudinal resultant stress distributions due to the combined effect of interference fit and longitudinal remote
load were shown in Fig. 19 for the three levels of the interference fit and without interference fit at the smallest cross section
area (h = 90o) at the entrance face for a high load level of 15 kN and 19 kN. As the figures show at high load the effect of inter-
ference is almost disappeared.
The longitudinal stress distribution through the plate thickness at the hole edge for one cycle of longitudinal loading was
shown in Fig. 20. As the figure shows the stress distributed almost evenly through the plate thickness for zero interference,
but this is in not the case for other interference fit sizes. The comparison of the two figures (charts) also shows that the stress
range for 1.5%, 2.4% and 4.7% is smaller than the zero interference size, this is quite distinguishable for I = 4.7%.

5. Discussions

As the experimental fatigue tests show interference fitted specimens have greater fatigue life compared to with no inter-
ference fitted specimens at the lower loads. But this is not the case for higher load and, the interference fitted and without
interference fitted specimens have almost the same life (see Fig. 4). The results also show that the higher the interference fit
the higher the fatigue life at low level load. To justify these phenomena in the fatigue specimens, FEM models were em-
ployed to simulate the interference fit process and subsequent cyclic loading of the specimens as presenting an analytical
exact solution to such a complex problem is extremely difficult. The simulation results from FEM model imply that the fa-
tigue life improvement at low load in the interference fitted specimens could be related to the fact that in these specimens
the amplitude of the alternating stress has been reduced considerable. It is well known that the amplitude stress is one of the

Fig. 17. The combined longitudinal resultant stress distributions due to interference fit and subsequent cyclic remote loading of 10 kN peak load (or
176 MPa remote stress) at h = 90o for 2.4% interference fit.
 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080 2077

Fig. 18. The combined longitudinal resultant stress distributions due to interference fit and subsequent cyclic remote loading of 10 kN peak load (or
176 MPa remote stress) at h = 90o for 4.7% interference fit.

most important parameter in fatigue life, so reduction in stress amplitude will result in fatigue life increase. The alternating
stress amplitude reduction is bigger for bigger interference sizes and so the fatigue life at low load level (see Figs. 16–18 and
4). As shown by FEM results, the reduction in the amplitude of the alternating stress at higher load for interference fitted
specimens are negligible. Virtually the longitudinal stress distributions due to high level of cyclic load for all interference
fitted specimens (i.e. 1.5%, 2.4%, 4.7%) and without interference are the same.
The FEM models show that the tangential residual stress distribution due to the interference is not uniform through the
plate thickness around the hole; it is tensile around the entrance and bottom faces, but compressive around the mid-plane at
the hole edge (see Fig. 13). The distribution of the tangential stress at the specimens subjected to the lower load case is not
uniform after applying the remote axial load either (see Fig. 14b, d and f). The alternating and mean stress at the entrance
face are larger than at the mid-plane and bottom face (see Figs. 16–18) for all interference fits at low level load. In the small-
est cross section area at the entrance face, the mean stress at a distance away from the hole, is greater than at the hole edge,
but to the contrary, the stress amplitude is much smaller. This proves that in all interference fitted specimen subjected to the
lower remote load, fatigue cracks initiate from the hole edge at the entrance face as the fracture sections show (see Fig. 6).
However, the simulations show that the distributions of longitudinal stress in all models (either with or without interference
fit) are almost the same for higher longitudinal remote load (see Fig. 14a, c and e) for the three planes (entrance face, mid-
plane and exit face) at the smallest cross section area. This problem could be related to fact that higher load creates a plastic
region around interference fitted hole and this enables residual stress relaxation. The simulations also show that at higher
load for all fits considered, the longitudinal stress is greater at the hole edge in the mid-plane than at the entrance and exit
faces. This explains why fatigue cracks initiate and propagate from the hole edge at the mid-plane under higher loads (see
Fig. 6).

6. Conclusions

Experimental test results show that the specimens for which bolts were fitted using an interference fit, produced a greater
fatigue life in comparison with those with no interference at lower loads and the life improvement is greater for larger levels
of interference fit. However, the fatigue life for 0%, 1.5%, 2.4% and 4.7% interference fits are almost the same at high loads.
2078 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080

Fig. 19. The combined longitudinal resultant stress distributions due to interference fit and subsequent cyclic remote loading of 15 kN and 19 kN peak loads
(or 264 and 335 MPa remote stresses) at h = 90o for all interference fit.

It was observed that with the interference fitted specimens when subjected to low loads, a fatigue crack initiates and
propagates at the plate entrance face at the hole edge whereas those subjected to high loads the crack initiates and propa-
gates around the middle plane at the hole edge. A fatigue crack initiates and propagates around the middle plane for all
ranges of load with the zero interference specimens.
The 3-D finite element simulations of the interference fitting bolt/cylindrical pin have shown that the tangential residual
stress is not uniform through the plate thickness at the hole edge for the interference fitted levels. It is tensile at the entrance
and bottom faces but compressive at the mid-plane.
The maximum tensile longitudinal stress at the hole edge due to a low magnitude remotely applied tensile load is re-
duced in the FE models having an interference fit compared with those having no interference.
The FE models show that the longitudinal stress amplitude is reduced for those having an interference fit compared with
those with 0% interference around the hole and at the smallest cross section area.
 T.N. Chakherlou et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 2066–2080 2079

Fig. 20. Stress (Sx) (loading (left) and unloading (right)) for all interference fit through the plate thickness for load level of 10 kN.

The FE model results show that the reduction of cyclic stress amplitude due to an interference fit at low loads at the en-
trance face is less than the mid-plane and bottom face at the hole edge and also the mean stress due to interference fit at the
entrance face is larger than at other locations.
With the interference fitted specimens, the relative fatigue life improvement is greater for a smaller applied load than for
a larger one. This is believed to be due to a proportionally greater relaxing of the residual stresses, which are caused when
first producing the interference fit, under these conditions.
The FE models show that the plastic strain for the higher interference level is greater.

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